"Look dad, I made a modest studio apartment for my Malibu Stacey doll! This is the kitchen, this is where she prints her weekly feminist newsletter..."
-Lisa Simpson

You gotta love her.

Pro tennis player John McEnroe wants to look out for us ladies by ensuring that we don't hurt our dainty little arms picking up those big heavy tennis rackets. Better let the menfolk do it for us. In an interview, he said (among many other things):

"You're asking too much of the women. They shouldn't be playing as many events as men."

and

"They should be required to be in less events, there should be less events for the women. It seems it takes an actual meltdown on the court or women quitting the game altogether before they realize there's a need to change the schedule."

Thanks for looking out for us, John, but seeing as how you don't have a woman's body, I think it's a little tough for you to decide what we are and are not capable of.

Don't have too much time to blog, but I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a
For those of you who don't know, August 26th was picked by U.S. Congress as Women's Equality Day because it was the day the 19th amendment was passed, giving women (though women of color were widely left out) the right to vote. Today marks 90 years.

If you're a reader of this blog, most likely you know the seemingly endless list of reasons as to why feminism is still necessary... the simple reason being, "WE STILL AIN'T EQUAL!" And let me try to make up for a fraction of the exclusion faced by most women by the mainstream feminist movement of the first and second "waves" by saying that equality is not fully achieved until it is achieved for ALL women: women of color, women with disabilities, immigrant women (including undocumented), LBTQ women, etc etc etc.

I realize many modern feminists have issues with the suffrage movement because women of color were largely left out, but instead of dismissing this day altogether, let's shape and reclaim Women's Equality Day to be a day of positivity in which we honor the sacrifices our foremothers* made, while looking ahead to the future and thinking about what we can improve.

What's everyone doing to celebrate Equality Day? I'll be here.

*My computer is telling me this word is misspelled, but "forefathers" is correct. Nice.

This week, Newsweek asked: Are We Facing a Genderless Future?

Although no one is keeping statistics, researchers who study gender say a small but growing number of people (including some who have had sex-change operations) consider themselves “gender neutral” or “gender variant.” Their stories vary widely. Some find that even after surgery, they simply can’t ignore previous years of experience living as another gender. Others may feel that their gender identity is fluid. Still others are experimenting with where they feel most comfortable on what they see as a continuum of gender.

I'm all for more mainstream and respected media outlets covering this issue because I think right now, far too many people view those who step outside of gender boxes as a small group of freaks whom, if we ignore, will eventually go away. But Newsweek is absolutely right: as more and more people realize that "there is no way that six billion people can be categorized into two groups," the group of people who define gender on their own terms is growing.

But I've said before: I personally don't aim for a genderless future -- instead, I hope for a society that embraces the right of each person to define their own gender. Seriously, can't we get rid of those tired and constricting "male" and "female" check-boxes on every form we have to fill out and replace it with a blank line instead?

Some of my favorite responses on Twitter to Sarah Palin's 100% ridiculous anti-feminist tweet.

Shakespalin: What's in a name? That which she calls a cackle By any other name would smell as rad

deliriumbubbles: "Cackle" is not a fucking unit of measurement. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cackle

feminismxianity: We cackle because we are so rad

thatmags: Remember: It took a #cackleofrads to make women's #suffrage a reality 90 years ago.

KeithOlbermann: The cluelessness of @SarahPalinUSA is astounding, panoramic. W/out feminists she'd have virtually none of the freedoms she abuses daily.

Andy Borowitz: Dear Sarah #Palin: "Gaggle" means a group of geese. "Cackle" means what we're doing at you.

Jessiebeal: What the hell is a cackle? A coven + a gaggle?

Who hijacked term:"feminist"?A cackle of rads who want 2 crucify other women w/whom they disagree on a singular issue; it's ironic (& passé)
-Sarah Palin

Well Sarah, you certainly don't speak for my cackle. Fun is at #cackleofrads and #jointhecackle on Twitter.

A New Pill Can Make a Baby Less Likely to Be Gay -- Will It Be Used to Change Sexual Orientation in the Womb?

I worry about this because not only can this magical pill reduce the likelihood of a gay offspring, but it can also ensure that little boys are masculine and little girls are feminine. Sounds far too Brave New World to me...

If you're a huge Degrassi fan like I am, be sure to catch tomorrow night's episode, which will be part one of two (part two airs Thursday night) of the first Degrassi episode to feature a transgender character.

Given that Degrassi has covered nearly every controversial issue under the sun, including abortion, drugs, sex, gay/lesbian issues, and even murder, I'm surprised it took them ten seasons to put a transgender character on the show.

Still, I'm stoked to see the episodes and I sincerely hope they're done tastefully. Here's an interview with the actress, Jordan Todosey, who plays Adam on Degrassi, a new character who is FTM (female-to-male) and deals with the backlash when his fellow students find out.

TRIGGER WARNING.

I saw this on Feministing, and thought it was pretty interesting. This domestic violence awareness campaign from London puts a specific emphasis on the responsibility of those who might hear or witness this type of violence to call 911 (or 999 in England) for someone who might not be able to.

They also use an interactive video to convey this message -- depending on if you "choose" (by clicking) to call the police or not, you will get a different ending to the video.

Trigger warning.

Found many-a interesting things while perusing the web on my Sunday afternoon, so here's a nice little round-up for y'all.

• If you need your daily dose of disgust, you can read about the opposition to building mosques near Ground Zero.


• For those of you who haven't heard, an appeal has already been filed against the Prop 8 ruling. No one's particularly surprised.


• From The New Gay: Queers You Should Know: Fred Karger, Our First Gay President?


• In honor of World Breastfeeding Week (which ended yesterday), Kimberly Seals Allers wrote a piece for Women's eNews about the low breastfeeding rates amongst black mothers.


• I found this absolutely horrific but thought it served as a good reminder of the lengths people will go to in order to protect their precious gender roles. A man allegedly beat his girlfriend's 17-month-old son to death because he wasn't acting "manly" enough.


• From AlterNet: In States Where "Gun Ed" Is Prevalent, Comprehensive Sex Ed Is Nowhere to Be Found.


• Another one from AlterNet: The GOP Fights to Make African-Americans Sicker and Poorer.


• Scenes from an anti-choice abortion-kills-black-babies protest.


• Ironically, Lucky magazine airbrushed Jessica Simpson to make her look thinner in her photo for an article about how much she loves her body.


• Jane Lynch. Hosting SNL in October. 'Nuff said.


• Thank goodness for Rachel Maddow and her ability to take on offensive media powerhouses, e.g. Bill O'Reilly.

Sociological Images posted this, and I thought it was worth putting here. It's a 30-second animation showing the changing unemployment rates from 2007-2010. Scary stuff.

I'm watching "12th & Delaware" right now (if you're not sure what it is, see below post) and one particular part got me so angry that I had to sign onto Blogger and start writing a rant-filled post in here to keep myself from throwing things. I was fine for most of the film because all the lower-than-low deceitful and manipulative tactics used by the anti-choice crisis pregnancy center in Florida wasn't anything I haven't seen before: make the young pregnant woman get an ultrasound, make her hold a tiny plastic fetus, refer to her "baby" as "he" and "him," call her and her boyfriend "mommy and daddy," etc.

BUT THIS.

In one scene, a 24 year-old pregnant woman went into the CPC, and she was what the staff calls "abortion-minded," which means she is certain she wants to have an abortion and probably wandered into an anti-choice center by mistake, which the CPC staff admitted in the film they hope happens. The staff member, who is most shown in the documentary, sat down with the woman, already a mother of 2, and started talking to her about her boyfriend.

Young Woman: He's not the best boyfriend... he is verbally abusive.
CPC Staff member: He's verbally abusive?
Young Woman: Yeah.
CPC Staff: For all you know, the baby changes him.

I'm still shaking. How dare you suggest a woman stay with an abusive partner in order to selfishly impose your own agenda. That was one of the most appalling tactics I have ever seen an anti-choice advocate use. They claim to be "pro-life," yet they tell a young impressionable woman to go back to her abusive partner because a baby might magically make things better. It just makes me sick.

Thanks to Feministing for the reminder that tonight is the premiere of the documentary 12th & Delaware on HBO. This film highlights the intersection in Florida known as "ground zero" for the abortion rights battle because on this corner lives both a reproductive health clinic and an anti-choice crisis pregnancy center, right across the street from one another.



As mad as this documentary will inevitably make me, I'm excited to watch it. I sincerely hope the numerous ways in which CPCs are detrimental to women is apparent in the film because more people need to know the truth: these fake clinics are staffed with liars and harassers who don't trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. And sadly, CPCs greatly outnumber abortion-providing clinics in the U.S.

August 1st-7th is:

World Breastfeeding Week


World Breastfeeding Week's purpose is to raise awareness about the numerous benefits of breastfeeding and to encourage society to stop viewing it as some sort of pornographic act that belongs in the home. New mothers have every right to breastfeed when and where they feel it necessary, but unfortunately we still have to fight for that right.

Learn more about what you can do in honor of World Breastfeeding Week at the official website.